Frank James Michael "Frankie" Grande Marchione was a houseguest on Big Brother 16 and later was a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother 18.
Frankie is the brother of singer and actress Ariana Grande. For weeks Frankie hid this from his fellow cast members, but when his back was against the wall, he revealed his relationship to the singer as an attempt to win them back, to mixed responses. After winning the first HOH competition of the season, Frankie established a relationship with co-HOH Caleb Reynolds that eventually led to the creation of the Bomb Squad, an eight-person alliance. After the leader of the alliance, Devin Shepherd, was evicted in Week 3, Frankie joined a new alliance called The Detonators which consisted of four other original Bomb Squad members. When the BB Rewind Twist was introduced in Week 11, Frankie was adamant about pressing it, unknowingly nullifying his HOH and POV wins. He was evicted in the rewind week, after failing to win the same competitions, by a 2-0 vote, placing 5th and becoming the 7th member of the jury.
Frankie later competed on the eighteenth celebrity season of the United Kingdom version of Big Brother. Frankie took part in many weekly tasks like judging a talent show, winning a shopping task, and bringing a little bit of Hollywood to Borehamwood, just to name a few. On Day 30, he left the house in sixth place.
Post Big Brother :
•Since his appearance on Big Brother, Frankie has made appearances on various TV shows. From notably, being a judge on Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew.[3]
•Frankie competed on the Big Brother Primetime Special of The Price is Right that aired on May 24, 2016.[4] Despite being one of the first four teams called, Frankie and his partner, Amy was unable to play a pricing game.[5]
•Frankie is a host on Style Code Live, a webseries on Amazon.com.[6]
•Frankie Grande holds the record for the most Head of Household competition wins with 5 wins. However, he was dethroned twice in Week 1 and 4 so officially he has 3 permanent HOH wins. In addition, due to the BotB twist, he was able to compete in and win HoH two weeks in a row (Weeks 4 & 5), while only the second win was a full reign.
•Frankie is the third person to win HOH and POV in the same week twice, following Danielle Murphree & Andy Herren.
•Frankie co-founded the largest alliance in Big Brother history, the Bomb Squad, alongside Caleb Reynolds. Only two members of the alliance did not make the Jury.
•Ironically, in a live chat Frankie said a year later it was better to have a small alliance than a large one.
•Frankie won the most competitions in Big Brother 16, having won 9 (8 if his BotB win isn't included).
•If one doesn't count dethroned HoHs and the Battle Of The Block as wins, Frankie is tied with Frank Eudy,Shane Meaney, Ian Terry, fellow BB16 houseguest Cody Calafiore, Steve Moses and Paul Abrahamian for the most permanent competitions won by a male at 6. He is also the fourth male to do this.
•He would also tie Janelle Pierzina for the most competitions won in a single season with 9 wins each (5 HoHs, 3 PoVs and 1 BotB. ).Though technically without his dethroned HoHs and the BoTB, Frankie would have six competition wins (3 HoHs and 3 PoVs).
•Frankie Grande is the third HouseGuest (and second male overall) to win at least 3 HOHs and 3 POVs in a single season. Janelle Pierzina and Frank Eudy are the first houseguests to do this respectively (and later Cody Calafiore, Vanessa Rousso and Paul Abrahamian).
•Frankie is the first openly gay HouseGuest to win the first HOH. He was later followed by Jason Roy from Big Brother 17.
•Frankie is the first houseguest to win a BOB while their partner tried to throw it. The second houseguest was Donny Thompson from the same season.
•Frankie is the first Big Brother contestant to be a TV judge as he is currently judging America's Best Dance Crew, the second being Vanessa Rousso who judged on Bank of Hollywood prior to competing on Big Brother.
•Frankie also appeared in the audience during the first live eviction episode of Season 17. Evicted houseguest Jace Agolli gave him a shoutout as he saw him in the front row.
•Frankie is the first US houseguest to appear on another country's version of the show officially.
•Jase Wirey had a chance to complete on Big Brother Canada 4 but lost the public vote to Tim Dormer.
•He is one of five houseguests, along with Tim Dormer (BBAU), Jade Goody (BBUK), Nikki Grahame (BBUK), Brigitte Nielsen (BBDK), Daniela Martins (BBFR), Daniel Mkongo (BBFR), Sava Radović (BBD), Nikola Nasteski (Vb), Žarko Stojanović (BBFR), Željko Stojanović (BBF), Kelly Baron (BBBR), Lucy Diakovska (BBBG), Leila Ben Khalifa (GF), Priya Malik (BBAU), Leonel Estevao (BBA), Fanny Rodrigues (BBPL), Tucha Anita (BBAO), and Amor Romeira (GHS) who competed on seasons from two different versions of the show.